Faheem Iqbal, Muhamamd Saleem, Sheraaz Saleem, Imtiaz Ahmad, Khurram Shahzad, Sadia Nasim.
Frequency of coronary artery ectasia in patients with myocardial infarction.
J Cardiovascular Dis Jan ;16(1):15-9.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Although coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is a rare entity but its correlation with myocardial infarction (MI) leads to significant considerations in management of patients with MI .Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) may be isolated i.e. occurs without coronary artery disease (CAD) or can coexist with CAD. In majority of the patients, ectasia coexists with CAD. CAE may be a precipitating factor of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) including acute MI even without associated stenotic lesions. About 30% patients with CAE present with ACS. This study was conducted to calculate the frequency of coronary artery ectasia in patients with myocardial infarction (MI). MATERIALS & METHODS:191 patients presenting with myocardial infarction of age 18-60 years of either gender undergoing coronary angiography were included. Patients with valvular heart disease, cardiomyopthies, heart failure and renal failure were excluded. Full demographic information including name, age, gender and risk factors like hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM) and smoking were noted. The coronary angiographic films were reviewed by the consultant cardiologist and presence of coronary artery ectasia was noticed. RESULTS:Mean age was 49.28 +- 9.64 years. Out of the 191 patients, males were 85.86% while females were 14.14% with ratio of 6:1. The percentage of vessel involvement in descending order was right coronary artery in 56.02%, left anterior descending artery in 25.13%, left circumflex artery in 13.10% and left main stem in 5.76% patients. Coronary artery ectasia was found in 62.83% patients, while it was not present in 37.17% patients. CONCLUSION: There is significant coronary artery ectasia present in patients presenting with myocardial infarction. It may be associated with old age, male gender, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and smoking. Further studies are required to find out CAE association with age, gender, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and smoking. KEYWORDS: Ischemic heart disease, coronary artery ectasia, angiography, myocardial infarction

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